Following the stock market close at the end of November 2018, Microsoft’s rapid re-growth was revealed. The climb in its stock price meant that the company now surpasses the value of Apple.
There are a number of factors that describe Microsoft’s change in fortunes, as Digital Journal reported (see: “An impressive growth curve from Microsoft. How did this happen?“) the success relates to branching out into areas like virtual reality, cloud computing and cybersecurity. With cyber systems, for example, Microsoft’s has developed a new framework could help policymakers better understand cybersecurity. The company is also working with various artificial intelligence startups, as so to offer a new array of business services.
The man with the plan
The force behind these changes is Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who has reinvigorated the firm and driven some changes in the technology space.
One of the first things Nadella did when he took over some four and a half years ago was to abandon the mobile phone strategy, where Microsoft was being out-performed by Samsung and Apple.
Nadella then proceeded to put the company’s focus back on business-to-business operations. These included purchasing business applications like LinkedIn and GitHub.
Diversification
Under Nadella’s leadership Microsoft has branched out into different areas by taking its core technologies and expanding them into new markets. One recent example is with virtual reality platforms and the U.S. military. This relates to Microsoft winning a major military technology contract with the U.S. Army, to develop Integrated Visual Augmentation System – that will have various capabilities, such as night vision, thermal sensing and instruments that measure vital signs.
Cloud computing
Microsoft is today a major player in cloud computing services (the world’s second biggest, next to Amazon). Microsoft’s Azure unit supplies cloud-based computer processing and storage to business. The division has witnessed 89 percent over the most recent one-year period.
Future technologies
Other areas that Microsoft is investing in and which have the potential to become big include Holoportation, a new type of three-dimensional capture technology enabling high-quality models of people to be reconstructed. The images can then be compressed and transmitted anywhere in the world in real-time. A further area that Microsoft is investing in is DNA storage, which synthesizes, manipulate and sequences DNA to enable molecular-level data storage. DNA has a density of up to one exabyte per cubic millimeter, is durable and easy-to-manipulate.
